My favorite distribution would have to, out of necessity, be any Debian-based distro. I use both Ubuntu-Server and gNewSense regularly. One of the reasons I like Debian so much is because of Apt. Apt is so much better at resolving dependencies than RPM-based systems. I also like Debian because it is GNU-supported. Of course there are also commercial and non-free products available through some apt repositories - and I use those when there is a need, most notably for connecting to Microsoft Exchange server (Ximian Exchange is non-free). I have also used CentOS in the past as well as Fedora Core for servers; CentOS is based on Red Hat Enterprise Edition, whereas Fedora Core is acceptably the beta product of Red Hat. Fedora Core 4, for example, was the image of what Red Hat 9 would be when it was released, minus the non-free portions of the product. But Red Hat Linux, it should be noted, is also open source, it's just commercialized, which most open source licenses do not prohibit.

Anyway, most of the stuff I do is in text mode, which I guess makes me kind of a Linux power-user. But I also like OpenOffice.org, Eclipse, Kate, Konqueror, GNOME, KDE, and all of the other GUIfied programs that are available for Linux. I've spent a lot of time as well on installing Gentoo, which I was very proud of. And also on compiling programs that don't come in binary form. I don't have any complaints about Linux. I love it and that power I get from it.

LOL, what is this, IRC? Anyway, I dual boot Ubuntu and Windows Vista, and I really would have to go with Ubuntu as my favorite distro. Not only is it easy to install, but its easy to use, customizable, pretty, and powerful. That's just my opinion, and I now brace myself for verbal assault.

Ubuntu needs practically no maintenance, I don't need to take care of viruses, spyware, defragging the hard drive and cleaning the registry.

I also love being able to install thousand s of different programs without buying any cd's or searching around the web and downloading the installers and the installing them one-by-one with the next-next-agree-next-reboot way.

Instead I just open the package manager, select what I want to install and click OK and everything is handled automatically for me.

Also keeping my computer and all software updated is easier as the same package manager handles every single piece of software on my computer.

I just wanted to add to this thread my experience. While I don`t have much experience with linux, I have the perspective of a new user. I believe this to be invaluable to new users or pre-new users ( if you will ) of linux. I tried to download various distributions by either netinstall or .iso. The problem I was having was none of the .iso`s worked for me, or they would boot and give me some kind of Kernel error ( which I didn`t understand ) but then I found this.

check it out. download the file Which takes less then 10 seconds, and the resulting utility will install just about any distribution of linux you like via a drop down menu. It will then proceed to guide you through partitioning you drive and deciding what packages you wish, ie. server, laptop, desktop, ect.

I partitioned my HD and installed debian in under 30 min. from download of said utility above to first boot up of my shinny new database server ready system

This option takes all the stress out of trying to switch from windows to linux. And you can get to the nitty gritty of learning *nix commands, programing ( not whilst under an oppressive system ) and well, really join the open-source community.

One final thought, and its a big one so read it slowly.

THANK god there are great people out there who saw fit to make information utilization technology that worked great and was free. Thank god for open-source.